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Toe nail injury

My 18 month old injured her toe nail pretty bad Tuesday afternoon, it bled but not real bad. I took her home and I've been soaking her foot in epsome salts in the evening. I took a close look at at lastnight and it appears that she may have separated the keratin from the qick.

She's obviously limping and in pain, I want to get a vets opinon on if it would be better to remove the keratin completely to promote the healing process and enable the new nail to grow back normally or maybe with rest the keratin will re-attach.

St. Thomas, the great doctor and theologian, warns about the proper use of animals, lest they appear at the final Judgment against us: and God himself will take vengeance on all who misuse his creatures.

Take the dog to the vet, unless you feel qualified to make the correct judgement on the toenail. My dogs have lost a couple of nails in their experiences so far, from completely gone to cracked. Don't work the dog, keep it out of any water or mud. I will treat with Hydrogen Peroxide, and Neosporin and wrap depending on the injury. If the nail is hanging off I will remove that part. The good news the nail will grow back in a couple of weeks.

Take her to a vet. Last year my dog just had a cracked nail which wasn't painful to her and appeared superficial.

A week or so later, the toe swelled and was obliviously painful. She was seen and x-rayed at the vet's office, no abnormalities on x-ray, she was started on Keflex and soaks in Epsom salts. Two days later much worse, it now appeared to be a puncture wound on the fleshy portion of medial left front toe. Back to the vet, given a shot of steroids and changed antibiotics to Baytril. Toe appeared to improve some, but would not heal. 2-3 weeks after the initial visit, it still had not healed completely. Back to the vet, another x-ray showed something had made a notch in the bone above the nail. I left her at the vet that day not knowing how much of her toe she might loose because something was eating away the bone.

She only lost the bone attached to the nail. It turned out to be an infection, not cancer. I requested a culture and sensitivity be done. Glad I did, it was MRSA and only sensitive to Doxycycline.

Paula

HR Dixie's Southern Comfort IV, MH

“The beauty of the Second Amendment is it will not be needed until they try to take it.” - Thomas Jefferson

Had a dog once split a nail all the way through past the hairline. Vet had to put her under and remove the nail. It was wrapped for a week, some post op care (obviously) but she never limped, and eventually the nail grew back.

Go to the vet. If your dog is sore something is obviously wrong and it may be more than what meets the eye.

Take her to a vet. Last year my dog just had a cracked nail which wasn't painful to her and appeared superficial.

A week or so later, the toe swelled and was obliviously painful. She was seen and x-rayed at the vet's office, no abnormalities on x-ray, she was started on Keflex and soaks in Epsom salts. Two days later much worse, it now appeared to be a puncture wound on the fleshy portion of medial left front toe. Back to the vet, given a shot of steroids and changed antibiotics to Baytril. Toe appeared to improve some, but would not heal. 2-3 weeks after the initial visit, it still had not healed completely. Back to the vet, another x-ray showed something had made a notch in the bone above the nail. I left her at the vet that day not knowing how much of her toe she might loose because something was eating away the bone.

She only lost the bone attached to the nail. It turned out to be an infection, not cancer. I requested a culture and sensitivity be done. Glad I did, it was MRSA and only sensitive to Doxycycline.

A similar thing happened to us. Long story short: infection can get into the toe bone and may require amputation if you don't take care of it asap with vet supervision. With my girl, the nail was cut off despite it looking like a superficial crack at the base. But this only happened after a misdiagnosis and infection in the toe, then bone. We were lucky. All is well and the nail grew back rather quickly. The vet should make a pressure bandage around the foot and it won't take long to get her back on her feet if you treat correctly from the get go!

Welp had it happen in Duck camp . Left the nail on over night (dog was in pain-wouldn't walk) removed the outer broken casing, and dog was running around the club. Took ~ 2-4 days for the quick to shrink back up. A couple of weeks the nail grew out; as if nothing had happend. The Keratin is just a dead covering if it's broken it won't reattach, if you attempt to glue it it'll break again. If it's not removed, chance are the nail will break all the way up to the bone. I remove them myself, then watch her close for infection. Infection= cherry toe; then it's into the vet for x-ray and anti-biotic. I'm definitely not a vet but I've doctored a lot of fractured nails, most get cut short and dog doesn't even remember it hurt. I've only seen one that had to go in after not healing properly (NILAND MUD) swelled up turned red; we caught it quick enough that the infection didn't reach the bone, but they had to go in cut it open, remove the nail, scrape the bone; really clean it up; high dose antibiotic, still after all that the nail grew back normal.

Last edited by Hunt'EmUp; 03-27-2014 at 12:44 PM.

"They's Just DAWGS"
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St. Thomas, the great doctor and theologian, warns about the proper use of animals, lest they appear at the final Judgment against us: and God himself will take vengeance on all who misuse his creatures.